Raising Aces

Masahiro Tanaka, the Debut Ante

When I wrote about Masahiro Tanakaover the winter, my analysis was limited to the piecemeal footage that could be found across the interwebs, which led to a lot of caveats about what we could expect of his performance in the majors. There were many reasons for caution when projecting the state-side translation of his skill set, ranging from his workloads and pitch selection to his mechanics and statistical profile. With a trio of big-league starts now under his belt, we have a much clearer picture of his talent.

Tanaka has enjoyed a smooth acclimation to the major leagues thus far, and his early-season success is not entirely a surprise. My expectation was that he would perform well on his first tour of the league but that he could struggle once teams adjusted to his gameplan, and that he would likely have an adjustment period before reaching his theoretical ceiling. The early indications this month have been very encouraging, with positive implications for his performance going forward. Let's take a look at Tanaka's stats, stuff, and mechanics over his first couple weeks of big-league play.

With a 4-0 lead, he gives up a HR to Ortiz on a 3-1 fastball (after striking him out on a splitter), another HR to Napoli on a fastball (after he made him look foolish in first AB), sends a first pitch fastball to Gomes, gives up a wallball 2B to Pierzynski on a fastball (after making him look bad first time around on off-speed), and then starts the next batter with a fastball.

I would pray to God that he wouldn't use that sequence if the game wasn't 4-0. No one with his assortment of pitches should have thrown those many fastballs.